Golf is a ball game played on grass land in naturally or only slightly modified terrain. It is the aim of golfing, to hit a small, hard ball (golf ball) with a club on courses of different lengths into a hole with as few hits as possible.
Usually, a golf course is designed with 9 or 18 holes which are several hundred meters long. Each course starts with a teeing area, which is followed by a fairway for further playing. At the end of the fairway there is a green with lawn which is cut very short and with the hole as a goal. The course is surrounded with uncut grass (rough), scrubland, trees, water and artificial obstacles, such as sand-filled bunkers. The hole is marked with a flag for better recognition.
In order to hit the golf ball, a player can choose one out of 14 different clubs with different club heads depending on the ground and the desired trajectory. On the tee or on the fairway, the player wants to hit the ball as far and as precisely as possible. For this purpose, the player has to hit the ball with the head of the club with high speed and accordingly with high kinetic energy in order to achieve an optimum power transfer to the ball. Both the direction and the amount of the transmitted power should be as exact as possible in accordance to the necessary values of the desired trajectory.
In order to carry out such a hit, usually a player first moves the club far behind his head. The club head is then guided in a circular and swinging motion to the ball. When hitting the ball, a part of the kinetic energy of the club head is transmitted to the ball. The player then lets the club continuously swing in a circle. This motion, which is also called a golf swing, is a technically very demanding motion sequence. Beside a movement of the arms, a rotation of the shoulders, torso and hips must be effected. Thereby, the weight of the player is shifted from one leg to the other. The golf swing requires a good sense of rhythm, timing and accuracy from the player.
Especially beginners and inexperienced players often have significant problems in learning the optimum motion of a golf swing. A large number of individual movements must be coordinated during the swing and attention must be paid to the position of all body parts to each other. Furthermore, the golf ball also has to be hit and must be played in a desired direction. An incorrect motion sequence of the golf swing often causes an unsatisfactory golf play. The player can lose the fun of playing golf. Furthermore, a faulty motion sequence involves the risk of sport injuries. Joints and muscles may be incorrectly and destructively stressed.
An entire industry sector of the clothing industry deals with sport-suitable golf clothing. Further, the fashionable aspects and golf etiquette and functional properties of golf clothing are considered to be of high importance. The golf clothing should protect the golf player from disadvantageous weather conditions and should provide an optimal body climate, in particular without limiting the mobility of the golf player.
Known practice aids are complicated and do not allow the necessary freedom of movement.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,117,538 B2, expressly incorporated herein by reference, discloses a jacket, in which a band is incorporated for pulling the arms to the body.
DE 202004008900 U1 discloses a stretching device, in which a forearm cup and an upper arm cup are fastened at the arm by using fixing bands. Rigid bars are fastened at the arms cup. The bars are rotatably connected to each other. A coupling element used for this purpose is biased in such a manner, that the arm is stretched. The stretching device must be individually adapted to the player. The coupling element is expensive to produce and difficult to assemble.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,027, expressly incorporated herein by reference, discloses a textile-type stiffening mechanism, which is slipped over the complete elbow joint.
UK 2399761 A discloses an adjustable elbow sleeve, which keeps the arm in a desired flexion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,795,238, expressly incorporated herein by reference, discloses a band, which extends along the outside of both arms and over the shoulders to the right hand (with right-handed persons) and shall support the body movement during the swing.